Former CEO Wants Seat on Board: 1
The holiday season was supposed to bring warmth and good cheer to all; however
this was not the case for the online casino software provider Cryptologic. It
seems that during the holidays the online casino software provider had an
argument with their former Chief Executive Officer, Javaid Aziz. Aziz wanted to
have a seat on the company’s board of directors but they had big disagreements
over certain corporate decisions that lead to the heads of Cryptologic rejecting
the request of Aziz to have a seat on the board. Lets just say it was not a
Merry Christmas for the man who wanted to sit on the board of the company he
helped acquire many new online casinos during his run as CEO. A newspaper for
the United Kingdom, The Telegraph, was the first to report on the arguments
between Cryptologic and Aziz.
The United Kingdom based newspaper ran the story on the online casino software
provider dispute. Their story said that Cryptologic was run by Aziz as their CEO
for 11 months. His time at Cryptologic begun in the middle of 2007 and he
stepped down from his post in the earlier months of 2008 in order for the online
casino executive to spend more time with his family. The story noted how much of
the company belongs to Aziz which is about 4 percent. He also has the option to
buy more voting rights to the company if he chooses; he could have up to 3.5
percent. Online casinos do not usually have long standing disputes if they can
help it. The newspaper went on to confirm Aziz’s interest in acting on that
option in April.
If he does exercise his option to acquire the holdings he will have a total of
7.52 percent of the voting population of the online casino software provider. A
Cryptologic spokesperson told the newspaper: "Mr Aziz also has options to
acquire 525 000 additional ordinary shares of CryptoLogic, of which options in
respect of 235 416 shares are currently vested and exercisable, 218 750 of which
are at a strike price of CDN$28.66 per share and the balance of which are at a
strike price of CDN$18.56." The problem therefore lies in the fact that he also
wants a seat on the board.